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Thursday, April 5, 2012

Game 81: Colorado - And Big Spirit

Tonight the Columbus Blue Jackets punched the Colorado Avalanche out of the playoffs, in their own barn. Dang. Thoughts from DBJ world:

1. Cam Atkinson - Hat trick. Several great individual efforts for goals, one great lead pass by Boyce. Suhweet. Cam is going to camp for team USA if the Springfield Falcons don't make the playoffs. This kid is growing used to the NHL game. Which is trouble for the rest of the league.

2. The power play - A nice 5 on 3 power play with Jack Johnson (JMFJ) and Wiz prowling the points. Sorry folks, but they just toyed with Colorado, before setting Nash up with a shot that he willed into the net, likely costing him back spasms. This is just a sweet taste of what next year could look like with Wiz and JMFJ. The defense of the CBJ has never looked like this, a theme I will develop as golf season comes upon us.

3. Spoilers. Nice. Carve one into your pistol butt. Sorry Colorado, you join us in the lottery excitement. The CBJ have played with great spirit down the stretch. Sorry folks, this long time season ticket holder has watched a lot of fruitless CBJ hockey down the stretch of lost seasons, and what we are watching is not what we were seeing then. Then, we needed to sneak up on teams. Its obvious to these guys we are coming, but we beat them anyway. There are reasons for this, which I will milk in the off season.

4. The Captain Cans two - Nash scores two sweet goals. In what might be his last road game for the CBJ, the Captain was a finisher. Good stuff. Importantly, the team around him looks strong.

5. Staying up for the win - Its rough to be in the Western Conference. Phoenix, get a deal done, so we can watch road games in Eastern Time!

4 comments:

But let's throw a bonus number 6 onto the fire: WTF was up with Prospal getting a misconduct for pursuing an issue with the ref? He didn't touch the ref, wasn't spitting in the ref's face. I can't read lips, but Vinny's demeanor and body language looked professional to me. And he gets a 10 minute misconduct for that? I'm sure the league will sweep it all under the rug - as they are wont to do with things CBJ-related these days - but the whole incident demands an explanation.

I'm fairly certain I have NEVER seen interference called on a hit on someone who has taken a shot. If I had a nickel for every time Nash got jumped after a shot I could retire. Call roughing if you want, but interference?